AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cut her off with a raised hand. “I don’t want to debate it. I did the right thing.”
She shook her head, but thankfully didn’t keep after me. She meant well, but she didn’t understand the consequences the way I did. I couldn’t very well tell her what Adam’s father had threatened.
Back in my temporary office, I cleaned everything out and had myself relocated to my comfy cube before lunch.
* * *
Adam
“Wake the fuck up, jerkoff,”Sal Harper bellowed.
My eyes yanked themselves open, and my feet fell to the floor as the stool Sal had kicked skittered across the floor. I blinked up at the howling madman.
“How long have you been asleep?” he demanded.
I shoved myself up out of the chair. “I was just resting my eyes for a second.” The soreness in my back said I probably hadn’t moved in hours.
“Bullshit, you were fucking snoring. Get the hell back to the office. Now.”
I stretched my shoulders, grabbed my bag, and lit out of there before we got into it physically. The door slammed behind me, and I checked the time again. No memory of anything after the first half hour of my four-hour stint came back to me. I’d fucked up royally, and Harper would be letting the ASAC know.
On the drive back to the field office, the irony struck me. Dad had threatened to derail my career if I didn’t break it off with Kelly, which hadn’t turned out to be a choice I got to make anyway. And here I was destroying it myself because Kelly had broken it off with me. I was screwed all the way around.
No Kelly, and no career. How the hell was that fair?
When life threw me a curve, it was a damned wicked one.
I slowed down and drove carefully, knowing what awaited me upstairs when I reached the office.
* * *
As soon asthe elevator doors parted, Dempsey was at his door. “Cartwright, my office. Now.”
The other agents on the floor kept their eyes down. Nobody wanted to be noticed when the boss was in this kind of mood.
I closed the door behind me and didn’t have to wait even a second for the assault to begin.
“This isn’t a fucking country club with naptime whenever you feel like it.”
I nodded rather than say anything.
“Do you have any idea how important this trafficking ring is?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And if you just missed the next drop off of girls, and they pick up stakes and leave town, what am I supposed to tell HQ? Fuck, what the hell am I supposed to tell the families whose daughters we lost because you fucked up? Huh?”
I knew better than to attempt to answer.
“We have over a month on this op, and you have to… I don’t know what your problem is. And frankly, I don’t fucking care. You come in hungover every morning.”
I lifted my head and opened my mouth to object, but stopped myself. He was right. I’d been hungover every day since Kelly told me to take a hike.
“Don’t think I can’t tell when you’ve been drinking. And don’t start about how it’s only off-duty. What do you have to say for yourself?”
This wasn’t really an offer to let me defend myself. I’d learned that lesson.
I knew contrition was the best policy with him. “You’re right. I’ll do better.”
